Discusses facilitating culturally sensitive transition plans for young children transitioning to kindergarten and their families. Addresses transition roles for families and adapting transition roles for culturally diverse families. Stresses the need for transition teams to emphasize continuity, communication, collaboration, and family concerns.…

This study explores how teacher quality matters in improving early childhood performance in US kindergartens. We find that it is what teachers do rather than the credentials they hold that matters. Different from previous research on the effect of teacher quality on student achievement, this paper first rejected the common practice of using…

Family, friend and neighbor (FFN) child caregivers represent a significant proportion of caregivers for young children. Yet, these caregivers receive little support for their services. In 2003, the First 5 California Children and Families Commission (First 5 California) began a study to determine the work-related needs of FFN caregivers in…

Developed to provide assistance in the building of an effective home-based program for Head Start children and their families, this handbook may serve as a blueprint for parent-focused home visits that assist the child and family to meet their special needs. Chapter one focuses on the home visitation model for providing services to families and…

This monograph represents the collective thinking of parents of children with special health needs, family members, and professionals concerning what is necessary and important in collaborative relationships. Collaboration is viewed as a way to improve quality of life and health of children and their families, by working together to humanize the…

An inservice training program was designed to assist early interventionists in assessing family needs and setting family goals for Individualized Family Service Plans required for handicapped infants. The training increased interventionists' use of family assessment tools and increased the proportion of family goals written as part of a…

This article describes early intervention services provided to families with infants and young children with disabilities in Sweden. The "habilitation model" is based on medical, educational, psychological, and social perspectives placed in a family context. Government legislation stresses intervention focused on the handicapping…

This article describes a family-centered assessment and intervention approach that empowers and enables families of young children with disabilities in the selection and use of assistive technology. Included in the discussion are key characteristics of parent/professional partnerships and effective, helpful practices that facilitate the level of…

Conducted content analysis of interview data to determine families' involvement in 100 first graders' literacy development. Identified four categories of involvement: reading at home, reading outside the home, using other literacy activities and materials, and writing activities. Found that many family literacy activities/materials do not…

After reviewing articles that discuss educational approaches for young children with autism, this article concludes that engagement is a critical feature, it is not clear that one approach is more effective than another, applied behavior analysis is a common foundation, and approaches may benefit from a more complete consideration of the family…

In this case study, a co-operative inquiry process was used to facilitate the expansion of inclusive early childhood education and care practices in a rural community in the Midwest. A university and a community researcher first engaged in interviews and site visits, during which they learned how a three-member inclusion team of early care and…

Intended to help developers of early intervention programs for children with developmental disabilities, the book provides philosophy, methods, and procedures based on experiences of the Child Development Center of the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences. The first section presents a program description including information on…

This paper proposes an expansion of respite care for families of handicapped children to include early intervention services and informal social supports. The experiences of the Delaware FIRST Program are described, focusing on using family day care as a respite service, training for family intervention, and emphasizing family-oriented resources.…

The Early Childhood Project is a longitudinal investigation of contexts in which children from different sociocultural groups learn to read. Data collected from 41 families showed some consistency between parental beliefs on fostering reading development (entertainment versus skills perspective) and nature of experiences made available to…

A study investigated the frequency and helpfulness of information included in multidisciplinary assessment reports as rated by 458 early childhood professionals in planning intervention programs for young children with developmental delays and their families. Results indicate a significant difference in the ratings of direct service providers and…